PENELOPE TREE

Penelope Tree; Vogue model, style icon and photographer David Bailey’s muse, she was the ultimate Sixties It girl.

She was 13 when the legendary photographer Diane Arbus photographed Penelope for a feature in Town & Country magazine.

At age 17 Penelope Tree attended the Masked Black and White Ball Party thrown by Truman Capote. There she was spotted by photographers Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon and Diana Vreeland ,who all took credit for discovering Penelope. The next day Penelope was already commissioned by American Vogue to be photographed by Avedon, who was so taken by Penelope’s appearance he said; ‘Don’t touch her. She is perfect’.

Penelope Tree photographed by Richard Avedon, Vogue October 1967.

Penelope Tree wearing wool bloomers and a fitted tattersall jacket, sitting on French street sign in Paris. October 1967. Just behind her the iconic Citroën DS, in its convertible version.

Rare shot. Tree and a male model photographed in the Studio on 1st November 1967. Photo by Lichfield.